The objective of UNCTAD's work on competition and consumer policies is to ensure that partner countries enjoy the benefits of increased competition, open and contestable markets, private sector investment in key sectors and ultimately that consumers achieve improved welfare.

​Pierre Horna, Officer-in-charge of COMPAL-UNCTAD and Fernando Furlan, GAE member of COMPAL II met with Mr. Marcio Lopes Correa and Cecilia Malaguti do Prado to discuss future issues of cooperation between UNCTAD and Brazil.

​UNCTAD and the national competition authority of Costa Rica (COPROCOM) launched new guidelines on merger analysis in accordance to the new competition law adopted in 2012. The event had more than 100 representatives from the private sector, sectoral regulators and the like.

​UNCTAD’s Competition and Consumer Policies branch outlined the organization’s work on e-commerce and the progress made in revising the UN guidelines on consumer protection at an International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network (ICPEN) event in Panama, 20-23 May 2014.

UNCTAD’s COMPAL competition law programme, in association with the University Antonio Gullermo Urrelo (UPAGU) and the Peruvian Competition Authority (INDECOPI), held the first edition of a workshop on competition and consumer laws for university professors in Cajamarca, in the north of Peru from 7 to 11 May 2014.